As we mentioned, a database table presents your information in
rows and columns. Let's take a look at how a table of positions might
look:
Position Information in a Table
Each row in the table represents the information about a specific
instance of the object, for example, the Recruiter position or the
SW Engineer position. In standard Force.com platform terminology, we call this a
record. For every
object you want to track in your app, you'll have multiple records
to represent each individual item about which you're storing information.
It's common for users who are new to the platform to confuse the meanings
of object and record. It'll make your development a lot easier if
you remember that an object is a category of information, such as
a position or candidate, and the record is a single instance of an
object, such as a SW Engineer.
As a side note here, we'll mention
that the platform includes a set of built-in objects when you first
start using it; we call these standard objects. One example
of a standard object is the User object, which stores information
about each person who is a user of the app, like our hiring managers.
You can also build your own objects to store information that's unique
to your app; we call these custom objects. Both standard
objects and custom objects are not really all that different—one
kind is prebuilt for you, and the other you build yourself. We'll
talk more about these later as you start to build your app.
Now
let's look at the columns in the table. Each column lists a particular
piece of information such as the Position Title or Max Pay. We refer
to these as fields. Every object has a set of fields
that you use to enter the information about a particular record. For
each field in the table, a single item of data that you enter, such
as Human Resources in the Functional Area, is referred to as a data value.
Just like objects, fields come in two varieties: standard and custom.
The standard fields are the ones that are built into the platform
and automatically added for you. The custom fields are the ones you
define to store specific pieces of information that are unique to
your app. Fundamentally, there is no difference between standard and
custom fields. Both are simply columns in the database table. We'll
talk more about standard and custom fields later when you begin building
your app.
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